_Barn-Elm Farm, 23rd Sept. 1829._
As if to prove the truth of all that has been said in _The Woodlands_
about the impolicy of cheap planting, as it is called, Mr. Elliman has
planted another and larger field with a mixture of ash, locusts, and
larches; not upon _trenched_ ground, but upon ground moved with the
plough. The larches made great haste to _depart this life_, bequeathing
to Mr. Elliman a very salutary lesson. The ash appeared to be alive, and
that is all: the locusts, though they had to share in all the
disadvantages of their neighbours, appeared, it seems, to be doing
pretty well, and had made decent shoots, when a neighbour's sheep
invaded the plantation, and, being fond of the locust leaves and shoots,
as all cattle are, reduced them to mere stumps, as it were to put them
upon a level with the ash. In _The Woodlands_, I have strongly pressed
the necessity of effectual fences; without these, you plant and sow in
vain: you plant and sow the plants and seeds of disappointment and
mortification; and the earth, being always grateful, is sure to reward
you with a plentiful crop. One half acre of Mr. Elliman's plantation of
locusts before-mentioned, time will tell him, is worth more than the
whole of the six or seven acres of this _cheaply_ planted field.
Besides the 25,000 trees which Mr. Elliman had from me, he had some (and
a part of them fine plants) which he himself had raised from seed, in
the manner described in _The Woodlands_ under the head "Locust." This
seed he bought from me; and, as I shall sell but a very few more locust
plants, I recommend gentlemen to sow the seed for themselves, according
to the directions given in _The Woodlands_, in paragraphs 383 to 386
inclusive. In that part of _The Woodlands_ will be found the most minute
directions for the sowing of this seed, and particularly in the
preparing of it for sowing; for, unless the proper precautions are taken
here, one seed out of one hundred will not come up; and, with the proper
precautions, one seed in one hundred will not fail to come up. I beg the
reader, who intends to sow locusts, to read with great care the latter
part of paragraph 368 of _The Woodlands_.
At this town of Tring, which is a very pretty and respectable place, I
saw what reminded me of another of my endeavours to introduce useful
things into this country. At the door of a shop I saw a large _case_,
with the lid taken off, containing _bundles of straw for platting_. It
was straw of spring wheat, tied up in small bundles, with the ear on;
just such as I myself have grown in England many times, and bleached for
platting, according to the instructions so elaborately given in the last
edition of my _Cottage Economy_; and which instructions I was enabled to
give from the information collected by my son in America. I asked the
shopkeeper where he got this straw: he said, that it came from Tuscany;
and that it was manufactured there at Tring, and other places, for, as I
understood, some single individual master-manufacturer. I told the
shopkeeper, that I wondered that they should send to Tuscany for the
straw, seeing that it might be grown, harvested, and equally well
bleached at Tring; that it was now, at this time, grown, bleached, and
manufactured into bonnets in Kent; and I showed to several persons at
Tring a bonnet, made in Kent, from the straw of wheat grown in Kent, and
presented by that most public-spirited and excellent man, Mr. John Wood,
of Wettersham, who died, to the great sorrow of the whole country round
about him, three or four years ago. He had taken infinite pains with
this matter, had brought a young woman from Suffolk at his own expense,
to teach the children at Wettersham the whole of this manufacture from
beginning to end; and, before he died, he saw as handsome bonnets made
as ever came from Tuscany. At Benenden, the parish in which Mr. Hodges
resides, there is now a manufactory of the same sort, begun, in the
first place, under the benevolent auspices of that gentleman's
daughters, who began by teaching a poor fellow who had been a cripple
from his infancy, who was living with a poor widowed mother, and who is
now the master of a school of this description, in the beautiful
villages of Benenden and Rolvenden, in Kent. My wife, wishing to have
her bonnet cleaned some time ago, applied to a person who performs such
work, at Brighton, and got into a conversation with her about the
_English Leghorn_ bonnets. The woman told her that they looked very well
at first, but that they would not retain their colour, and added, "They
will not clean, ma'am, like this bonnet that you have." She was left
with a request to clean that; and the result being the same as with all
Leghorn bonnets, she was surprised upon being told that that was an
"English Leghorn." In short, there is no difference at all in the two;
and if these people at Tring choose to grow the straw instead of
importing it from Leghorn; and if they choose to make plat, and to make
bonnets just as beautiful and as lasting as those which come from
Leghorn, they have nothing to do but to read my Cottage Economy,
paragraph 224 to paragraph 234, inclusive, where they will find, as
plain as words can make it, the whole mass of directions for taking the
seed of the wheat, and converting the produce into bonnets. There they
will find directions, first, as to the sort of wheat; second, as to the
proper land for growing the wheat; third, season for sowing; fourth,
quantity of seed to the acre, and manner of sowing; fifth, season for
cutting the wheat; sixth, manner of cutting it; seventh, manner of
bleaching; eighth, manner of housing the straw; ninth, platting; tenth,
manner of knitting; eleventh, manner of pressing.
I request my correspondents to inform me, if any one can, where I can
get some spring wheat. The botanical name of it is, _Triticum AEstivum_.
It is sown in the spring, at the same time that barley is; these Latin
words mean _summer wheat_. It is a small-grained, bearded wheat. I know,
from experience, that the little brown-grained winter wheat is just as
good for the purpose: but that must be sown earlier; and there is danger
of its being thinned on the ground, by worms and other enemies. I should
like to sow some this next spring, in order to convince the people of
Tring, and other places, that they need not go to Tuscany for the straw.
Of "_Cobbett's Corn_" there is no considerable piece in the
neighbourhood of Tring; but I saw some plants, even upon the high hill
where the locusts are growing, and which is very backward land, which
appeared to be about as forward as my own is at this time. If Mr.
Elliman were to have a patch of good corn by the side of his locust
trees, and a piece of spring wheat by the side of the corn, people might
then go and see specimens of the three great undertakings, or rather,
great additions to the wealth of the nation, introduced under the name
of _Cobbett_.
I am the more desirous of introducing this manufacture at Tring on
account of the very marked civility which I met with at that place. A
very excellent friend of mine, who is professionally connected with that
town, was, some time ago, apprised of my intention of going thither to
see Mr. Elliman's plantation. He had mentioned this intention to some
gentlemen of that town and neighbourhood; and I, to my great surprise,
found that a _dinner had been organized_, to which I was to be invited.
I never like to disappoint anybody; and, therefore, to this dinner I
went. The company consisted of about forty-five gentlemen of the town
and neighbourhood; and, certainly, though I have been at dinners in
several parts of England, I never found, even in Sussex, where I have
frequently been so delighted, a more sensible, hearty, entertaining, and
hospitable company than this. From me, something in the way of speech
was expected, as a matter of course; and though I was, from a cold, so
hoarse as not to be capable of making myself heard in a large place, I
was so pleased with the company, and with my reception, that, first and
last, I dare say I addressed the company for an hour and a half. We
dined at two, and separated at nine; and, as I declared at parting, for
many, many years, I had not spent a happier day. There was present the
editor, or some other gentleman, from the newspaper called _The Bucks
Gazette and General Advertiser_, who has published in his paper the
following account of what passed at the dinner. As far as the report
goes, it is substantially correct; and, though this gentleman went away
at a very early hour, that which he has given of my speech (which he has
given very judiciously) contains matter which can hardly fail to be
useful to great numbers of his readers.